What started out as a casual conversation among friends in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the 2014 NACDEP Conference recently culminated with over 180 Community Development professionals gathering in Cleveland for the 2018 NACDEP Conference. The carefully planned and executed agenda allowed time for participants to enjoy Cleveland, renew old friendships, make new connections, and most importantly engage in an excellent agenda for personal and professional development.
Ben Bebenroth – Chef, Farmer, Founder of Spice Hospitality Group, engages a full house during the closing session.
The program included keynote sessions with thought- provoking speakers, concurrent session presentations by Community Development colleagues from Ohio and from across the nation, poster sessions filled with great ideas, mobile learning workshops which took place throughout Cleveland, and opportunities to informally connect with our friends and colleagues.
They say that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, I say it takes a complete team to create an exceptional conference. That team included my colleagues from Ohio State University Extension, Community Development. Many of them worked countless hours to ensure a first- rate experience for attendees. To them all, I say, “Thank you and job well done!”
While I cannot recognize all of them by name here, I would especially like to highlight the conference planning subcommittee chairs:
- Speakers: Anne Johnson and Myra Wilson
- Publicity: Alice Hutzel-Bateson and Meghan Thoreau
- Hospitality: Jared Morrison, Sandy Odrumsky and Amanda Osborne
- Mobile Learning Workshops/Tours: Amanda Osborne and Lauren Vargo
- Concurrent Sessions: Cindy Bond and Becky Nesbitt
- Sponsorship: Kyle White
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not recognize my conference planning committee co-chair, Greg Davis. Greg’s leadership provided an outlet and an opportunity to engage us as Community Development professionals that ultimately created an excellent conference. Thanks, Greg.
See you next year in Asheville (North Carolina), June 9-12!
If you want to learn more about NACDEP 2018, contact:
David Civittolo
NACDEP President
Associate Professor and Field Specialist, Community Economics
civittolo.1@osu.edu
From all that I have heard, the conference as a rousing success! Thank you for taking the lead, keeping us on task when we were tempted to (and often did) veer off, and providing an opportunity to serve. This is what we do. 🙂 And, yes, I’m personally looking forward to Asheville!
Thank you David and Greg for leading the charge!
This was a great experience for the OSU CD Team, planning and seeing it come to fruition. I agree, a job well done and conference well executed for everyone’s benefit!
This conference made positive impacts on so many people. I heard numerous comments and conversations around “taking an idea back home” to implement! Fabulous job by all. Special thanks, of course, to David and Greg for their leadership… and Sandy and Jared and Ricky for quiet “background” (essential!) work.
Indeed, it was a great conference thanks to your leadership!